Cooking carrots whole maximizes health benefits

June 17, 2009 2:09:47 PM PDT

June 17, 2009 --

If you want to get the maximum health benefits from carrots, two things you should do: eat them whole after they've been cooked. A new study finds the anti-cancer properties of carrots are enhanced 25 percent if they are cooked whole rather than chopped up beforehand. Scientists say they taste better, too, because more of their sugar is retained.

According to scientists at Newcastle University, chopping up your carrots increases the surface area, so more of the nutrients leach out into the water while they are cooked.

Scientists also did a blind taste test and found 80 percent preferred the taste of whole cooked carrots.